Trần Tử Bình (1907–1967) was a Vietnamese revolutionary who later became one of the first generals of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (1948) and Vietnam's Ambassador to People's Republic of China (1959–1967). Trần Tử Bình was originally named Phạm Văn Phu. Later, during revolutionary time he changed his name into Trần Tử Bình (a name which means "man who can die for peace"). He is most famous for being a leader of Phú Riềng Đỏ labor movement in 1930 and one of the most prominent diplomats of Vietnam, who worked as the Ambassador of Vietnam to China during period 1959–67. Honours and Awards Gold Star Ho Chi Minh Order Biography Trần Tử Bình was born in an all-Catholic village named Tieu Dong, Bình Lục District, Hà Nam Province in the Red River Delta of northern Vietnam. His family were poor peasants but the parents managed to scrape together enough money to enroll Trần Tử Bình at a seminary. At school, he was remembered as a brilliant but very restive and steady student. In 1926, because of participating in the public mourning the death of Phan Chu Trinh, a prominent Vietnamese scholar-patriot, and mobilizing the students and young people in the neighbourhood to protest against French colonial rule in Vietnam, Trần Tử Bình was expelled from the seminary. His parents and relatives were very much disappointed about it but the young man did not regret it. He had a strong belief that what he did was an obligation of any responsible Vietnamese. At that moment, without yet knowing it, Trần Tử Bình joined the ranks of the young patriot intelligentsia, a group destined to play a critical role in modern Vietnamese history. Early revolutionary years In 1927 he signed up to a working labor on Michelin's Phú Riềng rubber plantation in the distant region of southern Vietnam Cochinchina. This decision was another blow to the family because, even without a school diploma, with his education Trần Tử Bình could have found a respectable job as a village clerk or landlord's agent. Again Trần Tử Bình was determined to break away, to seek adventure, to test his physical and spiritual powers in the totally unfamiliar land. This decision proved crucial for his entire life. It is during this period working in Phú Riềng plantation that he first met communist revolutionaries and learned about the Marxist–Leninist theory. In 1929 he joined the Indochina